New Delhi: As the country debates the women's reservation bill, data on parliaments across the world show that India, the largest democracy, lags much behind other countries including its neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh when it comes to participation of the fair sex in politics.
With only 10.8 per cent of women representation in the Lok Sabha and 9.0 per cent in the Rajya Sabha, India ranks 99 in the world, according to the comparative data by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organisation that works for promoting democracy, peace and co-operation among people in the world.
At present India has only 59 women representatives out of 545 members in Lok Sabha, while there are 21 female MPs in the 233-member Rajya Sabha.
The figure, however, is better than that of last year as only nine per cent of the members in Lok Sabha and 9.5 per cent in the Upper House were women in January 2009.
India ranks 50 places below Pakistan which is placed at 49 in the list with 22 per cent women representation in its Lower House and 17 per cent in the Upper House.
Similarly China and Bangladesh have also much higher representation of women in national politics compared to India.
While the communist country is placed at 55 in the list with 21.3 per cent women representation, Bangladesh is ranked 67th with 18.3 per cent female participation in national politics, the data revealed.
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